Hillary's George Bush Moment

Drew M at Ace's and Bryan have much to say about Hillary's serious flub about Pakistani politics. I'm not going to make too much of it, having made a similar flub myself when blogging about "Pakistani Presidential Politics"--Bhutto was running for Prime Minister, not President, and was not directly challenging Musharraf (though she was a rival).

But I'm not running for President, or even Prime Minister, as far as you know. (I am considering possibly throwing my hat into the ring for another meaty position such as Choice Minister, or maybe even Select Minister). And hey, Southwest Asian politics can be tricky. Why, I hear President Bush once had a little trouble in the Pakistani politics area:

"Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?" asked Hiller, inquiring about Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who took over last month in a military coup.
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Bush said: "The new Pakistani general, he's just been elected – not elected, this guy took over office. It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country and I think that's good news for the subcontinent."

Hiller persisted, saying "Can you name him?"

Bush said: "General. I can name the general. General."

As I recall Bush's unready recall of Musharraf's name was greeted with gentle good humor by the Party of Tolerance. They didn't, you know, freak out and claim Bush was... stupid or anything.

And good thing for them they didn't make a big deal out of Bush's flub, huh? Because if that made George Bush stupid, by liberal logic, this latest error must make Hillary even dumber than George Bush. After all, she should have seen it coming, right?

You know what? Let me quote a bit from that last link, because it's from 2007 and they're still flogging that horse that expired in 1999, and it's from Air America's "Young Turks" co-blogger Ben Mankiewicz, and because he says it's not the fact that Bush forgot Musharraf's name that's so much the problem, as it is that Bush wasn't familiar with Musharraf's electoral status (or lack of it):

It's not so much that Bush couldn't name the other three presidents. It's that – in failing to name them – he exhibited what we know now is vintage George W. Bush: A profound lack of comprehension engulfed in a stunning lack of curiosity. It's a lethal combination of ignorance.

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It's really not so important that Bush couldn't name Pervez Musharraf, though he undoubtedly should have. It's that he barely seemed to know the circumstances of Musharraf's rise to power or why Pakistan was such an important place in the world in November of 1999.

Bush initially said Musharraf had been elected, then seemed to quickly recall that Hiller had just mentioned he'd taken over in a coup. "Not elected," Bush said before adding "it appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country and I think that's good news for the subcontinent."

In hindsight, chilling. Stability? From a general who overthrew the popularly elected Prime Minister?

I hope Mr. Mankiewicz is similarly "chilled" by Hillary's "profound lack of comprehension".

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